TORONTO – Barely back from a nearly six-week absence caused when his toe jammed into an outfield wall, Jose Bautista returned to the disabled list Wednesday with a left knee sprain caused when his cleat got caught in the turf.
The Toronto Blue Jays are hoping to get their right-fielder back right around when the minimum 15 days expire Aug. 25. Bautista said the injury was a Grade 1 sprain, the least severe of its kind, and that medical staff "thought I should be back within the 15 days."
"I don’t think there was a lot of real damage," he continued, "just hyperextension type of stuff."
Still, with Kevin Pillar hitting the DL on Monday with a torn ligament in his thumb, Bautista’s loss has the potential to be problematic for the Blue Jays amid August’s trying dog days. Darrell Ceciliani will get the bulk of work in right field against right-handed pitching with Junior Lake having his contract selected from triple-A Buffalo to face some lefties, said GM Ross Atkins.
Ezequiel Carrera (left Achilles) is eligible to come off the DL next Tuesday but manager John Gibbons said he’d likely get some at-bats with Buffalo before his return.
The Blue Jays went 17-13 during Bautista’s first absence but will need to be better over the coming stretch in a tight American League East race.
"Obviously when you lose one of the best players in the game, that’s a tough blow to a team," said Atkins. "It’s a resilient team, a group that already has been through some tough spots, so we’ll just focus on how we can get better each day."
One of those ways is looking outside the organization for help and president and CEO Mark Shapiro has said a couple of times that the Blue Jays still have the financial flexibility to make an August add.
"There’s a balance of what the acquisition cost will be," said Atkins, "but also feel good about the alternatives with Zeke coming off the DL, Darrell Ceciliani here, obviously Junior Lake, Dalton Pompey, feel really good about our depth in that area. But you can’t replace Jose Bautista."
Pompey, who’s been making gains in Buffalo with a .708 OPS, was considered and Atkins noted that "he might get (an opportunity) here soon." That may not come until rosters expand in September, as the Blue Jays are looking to give him a strong foundation before his next promotion.
"What we wanted to work through was what’s going to be the ideal playing scenario for everyone involved, and Darrell Ceciliani has been as hot as anyone and playing really well in triple-A, so he’s going to get an opportunity in the short term," said Atkins. "Junior Lake will get more complementary at-bats and we’ll reassess that on a daily basis. Dalton has a chance to be a star, we want to make sure his transition is a smooth one, and one that has as little volatility as possible."
There’s plenty of potential for volatility in trying to cover for Bautista, even if the slugger had just started to regain his footing following his July 25 return from turf toe.
Bautista went 3-for-28 with seven walks in his first seven games back before going 8-for-30 with two homers and two doubles in the eight games that followed. He was hurt in the third inning of Tuesday’s 9-2 loss, stumbled after fielding a Kevin Keirmaier single and dropping to the ground.
"My cleat got caught in the turf, my knee got a little jerked there and I landed on it, too. I can’t really tell if it was when my cleat got caught or when I landed on it," said Bautista. "It’s extremely frustrating, especially after an off-season that a lot of hard work went into, getting my body ready and hopefully avoiding these types of situations, and then having it happen on two freak accidents, it’s pretty disappointing."
Bautista remained in the game until Gibbons yanked his starters in the ninth and while he was in some discomfort, it wasn’t until Wednesday morning that he knew he was in trouble. An MRI in the afternoon revealed the damage.
"I was surprised it felt the way it did this morning," he said. "Obviously it was getting worse as the game was going so I knew I did something but I didn’t expect it to feel this bad when I woke up."
In the best-case scenario for the Blue Jays, Bautista will return just ahead of the final September push. It’s possible he’ll be able to skip a brief rehab assignment.
"We’ll see where we end up timing-wise and if there’s time – those at-bats aren’t going to be wasted away in the minor-leagues," said Bautista. "I don’t know if I will or not, I don’t think so, two weeks is much different than five or six weeks. I feel I was starting to get in the groove of things, seeing the ball pretty good and making solid contact in the last five, six games. Hopefully if it’s just two weeks, I don’t think it’s a necessity to get at-bats, but we’ll see how I feel."
